Joe Blundo: Things I learned about Harding's feet and Cleveland's river from reading 'The United States of Ohio'

Joe Blundo The Columbus Dispatch @joeblundo

Sunday

Mar 31, 2019 at 5:00 AMMar 31, 2019 at 11:27 AM

Ohioan Warren G. Harding had the largest feet of any U.S. president.

No known photos exist of the famous 1969 Cuyahoga River fire in Cleveland.

Ohio is 35th in land mass but fourth in interstate highway mileage.

I learned these things from the "United States of Ohio: One American State and Its Impact on the Other 49." Author David E. Rohr, an Ohio native who now lives in New York, maintains that Ohio — because of its location, diverse economy and mix of urban and rural — is the "ultimate microcosm of the larger U.S."

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He takes a dive into Ohio geography, history and culture to make the case. Along the way he offers some arresting tidbits that I hadn't heard before.

There’s actually some controversy as to whether Lincoln or Harding had bigger feet — both are said to have worn size 14 — but Rohr’s source (Smithsonian magazine) seems credible, and Harding doesn’t get much love from historians, so let’s give him this one.

As for the river fire, I could have sworn that I’d seen photos of Cleveland’s blazing Cuyahoga, and in fact I had. But it was from a 1952 fire (the river had a habit of going up in flames), not the 1969 event that became a symbol of national disregard for the environment.

Fleeing river fires would be a relatively easy task in Ohio, what with our 1,565 miles of interstate highway, fourth in the nation behind Texas, California, Illinois and Pennsylvania. We’re more compact than all four of those, which means interstates are never far away (and hence we wear them out, prompting political fights over raising gasoline taxes to fix them).

I like the way Rohr makes connections between Ohio innovators and entrepreneurs. For example, if you wanted to argue which state did more to literally light the way in the 19th century, it would be hard to beat Ohio, home to:

• Brothers-in-law William Procter and James Gamble who established what would become a candle-making behemoth — and also a soap-making giant — in early 19th-century Cincinnati.

• John D. Rockefeller, whose innovations in oil refining enabled people to leave such primitive lighting as Procter & Gamble’s candles behind in favor of kerosene lamps in the 1870s.